Summer internship builds STEM skills

Cindy Restrepo had no robotics experience before her internship with the Fairfield County Makers' Guild.

"I didn't know it was even available. This is just a totally different world," said Restrepo.

Now that her experience is almost over, she's printing a mini T-Rex and working on a 3D hand.

"I'll eventually thread string through the fingers and into these bridges which will allow me to simply bend it and the fingers will open and close," Restrepo explained.

During training before being placed in the job site, Restrepo said, "We did a lot of group projects and working with other people which is, in this spot very important, that is what it was made for. For everyone to come together and throw ideas back and forth on projects. Planning and working together really helped on this specific job."

The rising senior at Brien McMahon High School was placed at the Fairfield County Makers' Guild through the Mayor's Summer Youth Employment Program.

Vladimir Mariano, Co-Founder and President of the Fairfield County Makers' Guild said, "A lot of what we do here interest high school kids, especially those interested in the tech releated fields."

"The first week Cindy was here we had her programming robots to solve little obstacle course. By the end of that week she was writing her own programs for the robots to follow lines."

Mariano says having a female intern at the guild proves that tinkering isn't just for the boys. "We start getting really diverse projects happening and we hope to get more girls in here to show that this is not just a guy thing. There are a lot of girls doing really creative stuff!"